Friday Report

From Washington, D.C.
- Roll Call reports,
- “The Senate fiscal 2025 budget resolution released Friday gives instructions to nine authorizing committees to draft a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill aimed at strengthening border control, buttressing military spending and encouraging domestic energy production.
- “The fiscal blueprint, written by Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., gives the authorizing committees until March 7 to fill in the details and provide their respective pieces of the package to the Budget Committee, which will then meld them into one bill.
- “The plan, to be marked up by the committee Feb. 12 and 13, assumes $342 billion over four years divided between border security, the Pentagon and Coast Guard: $175 billion for the border, $150 billion for defense and $17 billion for the Coast Guard.
- “The new funding would be fully paid-for, but how they do that specifically is up to the authorizing committees charged with drafting the implementing bill. Committees given instructions to come up with the offsets are given low targets — at least $1 billion — to provide them with maximum flexibility. But the expectation is those committees will exceed those targets.”
- and
- “House Republican leaders emerged late Thursday from a roughly three-hour meeting without an agreement on the contours of the massive budget reconciliation package they’ve been talking about for weeks.
- “But they planned to work through the weekend ironing out details with a goal of marking up the blueprint needed for the filibuster-proof bill early next week.
- “Speaker Mike Johnson said he’ll be working Saturday and through Sunday’s Super Bowl taking place in New Orleans — in his and Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s home state of Louisiana. President Donald Trump, who hosted House GOP leaders for several hours to discuss reconciliation earlier in the day, is slated to attend the game Sunday.
- “We are almost there,” Johnson said. “A couple final details that we’ve got to work out.”
- The Washington Post reports
- A federal judge said Friday he will temporarily bar the U.S. Agency for International Development from putting 2,200 workers on paid leave as planned by the end of the day after employee groups filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s authority to shut down the agency.
- U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols said after a hastily called hearing that he will enter a “limited” order in the lawsuit, brought Thursday, and was still weighing whether to order the government to undo the decision to place an additional 500 workers on paid leave.
- Nichols said he would explain his decision in writing Friday evening, and cautioned that his freeze would be temporary while both sides flesh out their complex but hastily sketched-out claims.
- OPM on its Fork in the Road webpage acknowledges the federal court order extending the “deadline for the Deferred Resignation Program, the deadline for federal employees to accept the program is being extended to Monday, February 10, at 11:59 pm ET.
- MedTech Dive tells us,
- “The American Hospital Association (AHA) has called for the Trump administration to exempt medical devices from tariffs on imports from Canada, China and Mexico.
- “In a letter sent to President Donald Trump Tuesday, AHA CEO Richard Pollack said disruption to the supply of devices from China would curtail hospitals’ ability to perform life-saving surgeries, protect patients and healthcare workers from contagion, and diagnose and monitor patient conditions.
- “The AHA is particularly concerned about products that are already in short supply despite ongoing efforts to strengthen the domestic supply chain, Pollack said.”
- The Government Accountability Office released a report on the Postal Service today.
- “The U.S. Postal Service is consolidating some of its mail processing facilities. Before doing so, USPS must give public notice of the proposed changes and provide information on how the changes will affect costs, employees, and mail service.
- “But we found that USPS’s process for estimating the costs of these changes doesn’t align with best practices we considered. For example, USPS doesn’t document all the assumptions and methodologies it uses to develop cost estimates. This information would help decision-makers and oversight groups better understand any risks or uncertainty involved in the estimates.
- ‘Our recommendations address this issue.
From the public health and medical research front,
- Fierce Pharma points out,
- “Since 1999, Feb. 7 has marked National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, drawing attention to the disproportionate impact of HIV on Black communities.
- “For ViiV Healthcare—the HIV-focused joint venture between GSK, Pfizer and Shionogi—the day represents a dual opportunity to both celebrate progress and plan next steps, according to Randevyn Pierre, ViiV’s head of national field engagement in external affairs.
- “It’s the moment for us to remember those who have contributed so much to this fight to end HIV/AIDS, and it’s an opportunity for us to celebrate how far we’ve come in HIV treatment, advocacy, activism, research and community work, and also to use that as evidence of how far we can go to end HIV,” Pierre said in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing.”
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced
- “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated and continues to increase across the country. COVID-19 activity is elevated in many areas of the country. RSV activity is declining in most areas of the country.
- “COVID-19
- “COVID-19 activity is elevated in many areas of the country. Though wastewater levels are high, emergency department visits are at low levels, and laboratory percent positivity is declining. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations are highest in older adults and emergency department visits are also elevated in young children.
- “There is still time to benefit from getting your recommended immunizations to reduce your risk of illness this season, especially severe illness and hospitalization.
- “CDC expects the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to work well for currently circulating variants. There are many effective tools to prevent spreading COVID-19 or becoming seriously ill.
- “Influenza
- “Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated and continues to increase across the country. Additional information about current influenza activity can be found at: Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report | CDC
- ‘RSV
- “RSV activity remains elevated but is declining in most areas of the country. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations are highest in children and hospitalizations are elevated among older adults in some areas.
- “Vaccination
- ‘Vaccination coverage with influenza and COVID-19 vaccines are low among U.S. adults and children. Vaccination coverage with RSV vaccines remains low among U.S. adults. Many children and adults lack protection from respiratory virus infections provided by vaccines.”
- The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP informs us,
- “Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant confers weak, short-term protection against reinfection, compared with the much more robust and durable protection provided by earlier variants, which highlights the need for periodic vaccine updates, a Cornell University Qatar–led study suggests.
- ‘The researchers used a test-negative, case-control study design to compare the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection against reinfection and poor outcomes in Qataris with that offered by infection with previously dominant strains such as Alpha, Beta, and Delta. COVID-positive people were matched with COVID-negative controls in a 1:2 ratio by sex, age-group, nationality, number of underlying medical conditions, vaccine doses received, week of COVID-19 test, testing method, and reason for testing.
- “The results were published yesterday in Nature. today.”
- and
- “Researchers today in JAMA Network Open say children with previous COVID-19 infection have a 25% to 28% higher risk of developing new gastrointestinal (GI) tract symptoms for up to 2 years than kids who did not report SARS-CoV-2 infections.
- “Studies in adults have shown that the risk of developing new GI symptoms, including abdominal pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), is increased in the year following COVID-19 infection, but it is unknown if kids are at the same increased risk.”
- Beckers Clinical Leadership adds “Flu cases reach highest levels since 2009 pandemic: 6 respiratory virus updates.”
- “Flu levels have surged to their highest levels since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, with influenza-related emergency department visits remaining very high across the U.S.
- “The flu continues to drive the most respiratory illness activity and officials warn that flu-related emergency department visits are expected to remain high in the coming weeks. “
- The American Hospital Association News lets us know.
- “A study by the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences found that low vitamin D levels in the first trimester of pregnancy are associated with higher rates of preterm birth and decreased fetal length.
- “More than 25% of women who are pregnant or lactating have lower than recommended levels of vitamin D,” said Alison Gernand, one of the study’s authors.
- “Women with higher levels of vitamin D were found to have experienced small but statistically significant increases in fetal length.”
- The New York Times reports,
- “Hospital and emergency room patients diagnosed with cannabis use disorder — defined as an inability to stop using cannabis even when the drug is causing harm — died at almost three times the rate of individuals without the disorder over the next five years, according to a study published on Thursday, the largest on the subject.
- ‘Patients with cannabis use disorder were 10 times as likely to die by suicide as those in the general population. They were also more likely to die from trauma, drug poisonings and lung cancer. Those numbers suggest that cannabis use disorder is about half as dangerous as opioid addiction and slightly less dangerous than alcohol use disorder, the researchers said.
- “A second report, published on Tuesday, found that more cases of schizophrenia and psychosis in Canada have been linked to cannabis use disorder since the drug was legalized.
- “Many people think, ‘Oh, cannabis is not harmful — it’s organic, it’s natural; how great,’” said Dr. Laura Bierut, a psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who is an author of an editorial accompanying the study of death risk. But the marijuana sold today is far more potent, and more harmful, than what baby boomers smoked in the 1960s and 1970s, she said.”
- Per Healio,
- “Central obesity measures of waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio appear to be more accurate and consistent indicators of colorectal cancer incidence compared with BMI, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.“
- and
- “A blood-based biomarker test may be a reliable method for predicting or ruling out Alzheimer’s disease-related pathology and subsequently for assisting clinicians in formulating a treatment plan for patients, according to new research.
- “The clinical integration of blood biomarkers for AD holds promise in enabling the early detection of pathology and timely intervention,” Mark Monane, MD, MBA, senior medical adviser at C2N Diagnostics, which funded the study, and colleagues wrote in Diagnostics. “The use of a blood biomarker test that is scalable and accessible as well as acceptable and equitable may address the unmet need in diagnostic testing.”
From the U.S. healthcare business front,
- Beckers Hospital Review lets us know,
- “Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente posted an operating income of $569 million (0.5% operating marin) in 2024, up from an operating income of $329 million (0.3% margin) in 2023, according to its Feb. 7 financial report.
- “Kaiser’s 2024 results include Risant Health, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit it formed to “to expand and accelerate the adoption of value-based care in diverse, multi-payer, multi-provider, community-based health system environments.” Risant closed the acquisition of its first health system, Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, on March 31. It closed the acquisition of its second, Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health, on Dec. 1.
- “Kaiser reported operating revenues of $115.8 billion for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, up from $100.8 billion in 2023. The system posted operating expenses of $115.2 billion, up from $100.5 billion in 2023.
- “The system posted a net income of $12.9 billion in 2024. Standard accounting rules required Kaiser and Risant to report the net value of unrestricted assets of the organizations that became part of Risant as one-time net income on its financial statements. A total of $6.8 billion of the $12.9 billion in the system’s net income was related to those acquisitions. The system posted a net income of $4.1 billion in 2023.
- “Kaiser reported capital spending of $3.7 billion in 2024, down from $3.8 billion in 2023. Its capital spending priorities in 2024 included preparations to meet California’s seismic safety standards by 2030 and supporting investments in leading-edge technologies and environmentally sustainable facilities. As of Dec. 31, Kaiser and Risant had 55 hospitals, 841 medical offices and 40 retail and employee clinics. “
- Healthcare Dive reports,
- “Verily, the life sciences arm of technology giant Alphabet, has reached a deal to sell its insurance subsidiary to Elevance, the payer confirmed to Healthcare Dive on Friday.
- “The subsidiary, called Granular Insurance Company, provides stop-loss insurance for employers meant to protect them from catastrophically high medical costs.
- “Terms of the deal were not disclosed.”
- and
- “A federal bankruptcy judge agreed to a deal on Thursday that places Prospect Medical’s struggling health system Crozer Health into a 30-day receivership.
- “Under the terms, Pennsylvania regulators will provide Washington, D.C.-based FTI Consulting $20 million to act as an independent monitor and manager of Crozer while Prospect continues to search for a permanent buyer for the four-hospital health system.
- “The deal isn’t the one Prospect originally intended to present before the Texas court. However, it will keep the lights on at Crozer for at least another 30 days.”
- BioPharma Dive notes,
- “Alumis and Acelyrin are merging, the biotechnology companies said Thursday afternoon, in an all-stock deal that leaves the combined company with a bigger cash balance and three drugs in clinical testing.
- “Per deal terms, Acelryin stockholders will receive 0.4274 shares of Alumis stock for each share they own, leaving them with about 45% of the combined company and Alumis equity holders with 55%. The new company, which will keep the Alumis name and be run by its executive team, would have $737 million in cash, enough to keep operating into 2027.
- “The merged entity will continue to develop Alumis’ two so-called TYK2 inhibitors, one of which is being developed for plaque psoriasis and lupus while the other is targeting neuroinflammatory conditions like multiple sclerosis. Acelyrin’s top prospect, a thyroid eye disease drug called lonigutamab, is part of the deal, too, but the program will be re-evaluated to “confirm its differentiation in a capital efficient manner,” the companies said.”